A subdued and apprehensive crowd filed into Wrigley Field for Game 3 on Tuesday uncomfortable with the Cubs' hitting, uncomfortable with their bullpen options, and uncomfortable with Maddon's pitching decisions.

All for good reason.

The ivy hasn't peaked yet, but the Cubs apparently have.

“I think we have one hit off their bullpen the whole series, which says something,” Kris Bryant said. “Their starters obviously, are big-name guys who are pretty good pitchers. I think you look at the Nationals series, too, and it’s a lot of the same stuff.

"I think if you want to be the team standing at the end you’ve got to get through all that. So far we haven’t, but there are still games to be played.”

Kyle Hendricks had his second straight subpar outing, lasting only five innings. Carl Edwards Jr. lost control again. A revamped lineup with Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo moving into the third and fourth spots failed to fix the offensive fiasco.

If the Cubs get swept in four games Wednesday, they better hope their irritated fans don't bring chalk to vent on the bleacher wall.

The energy so abundant in Dodger Stadium the first two games was largely absent at Wrigley in Game 3, whether it stemmed from the late start, a hangover effect from Justin Turner's walk-off home run off John Lackey or a general postseason malaise.

Photos from Game 3 of the NLCS between the Cubs and Dodgers at Wrigley Field on Oct. 17, 2017.

This didn't look like the same Cubs team they watched beat up on mediocre opponents while going 19-10 from Sept. 1 to the end of the regular season, nor the same Dodgers team that went 13-17 during the same stretch with a minus-19 run differential.

But the Cubs and Dodgers proved it's not how you finish, it's how you start over in October.

If you didn't know any better, you might suspect the Cubs were trying to bring back those hazy, crazy pre-championship days, when everyone expected the worst and crossed their fingers and hoped for the best.

Retro is still in, isn't it?

Even before Game 3 began, bad omens were popping up everywhere you looked.

The CTA handed out posters at the Addison Street "L" line calling the Cubs "One 'L' of a team," drawing ridicule because of its inadvertent reminder of the "L" flag that eventually flew from the center-field flag pole after the loss.

Then Edwards came out during pregame introductions wearing sunglasses at night, perhaps trying to disguise himself after proclaiming in Los Angeles after the Game 2 loss: "Before you know it, the series is going to be tied."

And when Yasiel Puig hit a bomb onto Waveland Avenue off Hendricks in the first with a man on and exuberantly flipped his bat, stomachs dropped all across Lakeview.

But when Puig's moon shot hooked foul before it flew past the Ron Santo flag on the left-field foul pole, a collective sigh of relief was audible. Puig picked up the bat, carefully dusted it off, primped some more and was called out on strikes.

Crisis averted?

Kyle Schwarber calmed jittery nerves with an opposite-field solo home run in the bottom of the first, a moment so inspiring even the ornery John Lackey busted a move in the Cubs bullpen.

Cubs fans once again donned their Joe-colored glasses, knowing this particular team's history of rising from the ashes.

But relief was as temporary as a pothole repair on Grand Avenue.

The Dodgers quickly answered back with Andre Ethier's tying homer in the second, followed by a 444-foot center-field shot by Chris Taylor in the third.

“I wasn’t thinking about that, to be honest,” Ben Zobrist said. “It would’ve been nice to keep that lead a little longer, but it happens, it’s part of the game, and we don’t think too much about the momentum shift in that moment. We knew we needed to score more runs anyways. It wasn’t about having one run and shutting it down the whole game.”

Hendricks looked shaky, and Dodgers starter Yu Darvish was just beginning to settle in. The coup de Cub came in the sixth after Hendricks was yanked trailing 3-1 and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts let Darvish bat with the bases loaded and two outs.

When Edwards walked Darvish on four pitches the crowd reacted as if they were on the fo'c'sle of a tramp steamer, as old-school Bears fans might say.

Cubs fans booed Edwards off the mound.

“I don’t care if they boo me,” he said. “They come here to watch us play, and it don’t bother me at all.”

Was Edwards distracted by Darvish squaring to bunt?

“No,” he replied. “I just couldn’t get it down in the zone.”

Maddon said of Edwards' recurring control issue: “I am certain they told Darvish not to swing, which is a great tact in that situation. But it’s frustrating.”

Edwards’ prediction will be tough to back up, but he said he didn’t mind showing confidence when he said Sunday they’d tie the series up.

“I’m still confident,’ he said. “There’s no need to change (my mind). I wouldn’t sit here and say we’re going to lose…It’s a very funny sport, and the tables can turn at any time. That’s a great team. They led all of baseball in wins for a reason.”

The Cubs seem drained after their five-game series with the Nationals, a delayed, 10-hour trip to Los Angeles after the clinching party and a trip home after two losses.

No one would use it as an excuse, and Schwarber politely cut off a reporter who asked if the team was "out of gas."

The schedule did not play in their favor, especially with the Dodgers getting rest after their sweep of the Diamondbacks.

“Five games and a day off break, it’s just not enough,” Addison Russell said. “I mean we played a full five. I know the guys in the bullpen, they may be feeling it. They may not. I just feel like we’re going to come (Wednesday) ready to play.”

Zobrist said the Cubs felt fine and denied any fatigue factor.

Dodgers starter Yu Darvish and manager Dave Roberts discuss Darvish walking with the bases loaded against the Cubs in Game 3 of the NLCS on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2017. (Colleen Kane/Chicago Tribune)

Dodgers starter Yu Darvish and manager Dave Roberts discuss Darvish walking with the bases loaded against the Cubs in Game 3 of the NLCS on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2017. (Colleen Kane/Chicago Tribune)

“We were there just as much as any game,” he said. “Mentally there was no letdown. Physically there was no letdown. It was just a matter of them capitalizing some mistakes we made, and they didn’t make a lot of mistakes.”

The Cubs may have thought they could turn it on again in the postseason and magically bounce back from the brink, as they did so memorably last year.

But the mojo was missing, and no one was exactly sure where it went. They’re hitting .172 in their eight postseason games, scoring two or fewer runs in five of their last six.

Rizzo and Bryant, their two biggest guns, were Bryzzo'd by the pitching of the Nationals and Dodgers.

“I think we could even play more loose (in Game 4) because what do we have to lose?” Bryant said. “No one is expecting us to come back but the guys in this room.

"I don’t know if it’s a comforting feeling, but it takes more pressure off us.”

Speaking of pressure, Maddon has been taking heat for some of his moves, and though there was little he could do in Game 3, the decision not to use Wade Davis in the ninth inning of Game 2 will be debated all winter, fair or not.

“I think usually when you look at it, when you win the players get the credit, when you lose the manager gets the blame,” Bryant said.

“I’m sure if you ask him that, it’s nothing new to him. He’s been doing it for a while. I’m not a manager. I have no clue how to do any of that stuff during games. He has all of our best interests in mind.”

Still, no matter how you slice it, the Cubs are on life support, and dreams of a repeat seemed distant.